Hi there, a few months ago I acquired a 1937 115 Business Coupe. This car belonged to my stepdad, given to him by his father. The car has been stored in his barn for 50 years. The last registration on the car was 1958, the plate is still on it. My stepdad passed a few months ago and I "rescued" the car so the house could be sold. I was, and still am, excited about owning such a rich piece of history. But, upon much further research, I feel that I do not have the time or the resources to put this car in the condition it deserves to be in. My biggest issue is space as I have dedicated one bay of my two bay garage to storing this car.
Anywho, the car is very solid. Of course it needs completely gone over due to the length of storage. It was repainted years ago, but the original color was maintained.
A few issues to note:
- At some point, the roof panel was replaced with a welded-in sheetmetal insert.
- Prior to 1958, a beam or board fell and dented the driver front fender and hood. Both a very easily repairable.
- oil bath air filter missing

Otherwise, this is a very good candidate for restoration. The wood in the trunk area is perfect, no rotting whatsoever. The undercarriage looks to be extremely solid and in great shape.

I am in south central PA, just outside of Gettysburg. I'm putting feelers out for interest at this point. Please contact me if interested in seeing the car or if you have any advice on where to start should I keep the car and begin restoration.

From all aspects, a great project. Should you endeavor to restore at some point, this is a very easy car to work on, and parts are not a problem, generally speaking. There are plenty of forum members here to provide advice on just about any topic. Start reading, and feel welcome to drop by the PAC tent at Hershey to get some Parts and Shop manual reprints, as well as meet many of the forum members in Person.
Alternatively, should you decide to sell the car, you will not have any trouble finding an eager buyer, whether for an original restoration, or (gulp!) from the streetrod crowd. Many Many of these entry level Packards wind up streetrodded....

First of all run down to Hershey for the swap meet and find the air cleaner you need. You can probably get the tires at Hershey as well.Then clean up everything. If someone locally can steam clean the undercarriage and engine compartment that will allow you to work more readily, notice lube leaks, etc. Next get the car running and safe. Flush the cooling system, change the oil, lube the chassis and change the gearbox and rear end lubricants. Do basic tune up and get the engine running as well as possible, get the gas tank cleaned by all means and the fuel lines blown out before you start the engine. You'll find out in short order if you need to service the fuel pump and carburetor.

Then drive the car for a few hundred miles over the next few weeks. This will enable you to see what else it will need or not need. You can then decide if a full blown restoration is in order or not. Order your priorites and get busy. Bear in mind this is not a highest dollar car but is certainly worthy of revival. And if you haven''t done so yet JOIN THIS CLUB IMMEDIATELY AND GET ACTIVE WITH YOUR LOCAL REGION.
Don Gutting

Thanks for the replies and the input guys.
Just to note, I did join PAC months ago and a shop manual was my first purchase before even picking up the car.
I have one question that hopefully is easy to answer. What is everyone doing for wheels/tires on these cars???? I've looked into Vintiques.com to buy aftermarket lookalikes because I'm wary of running tube/tire combo on the original wheels. In your experience, is it best to use an aftermarket wheel with radial tubeless tire? I'm mostly worried about blowouts & reliability with the tube tires.
This is completely new to me, I've never gotten this involved on a car this old. My previous projects have all been vehicles with the last 20 years.

Tube tires are not going to be an issue at the speeds this car is capable of! Clean up the wheels. There are plenty of places to get tires, like Coker and Lucas. Look in Hemmings or go online. You will get a lot advice to use radials but remember that the wheels and suspension (excellent on this car!) weren,t set up to deal with the sideways flex of a radial tire.

Okay guys, you've pretty well pushed me to the keep, clean & drive side of the fence. I am currently shopping for tires, will go with blackwall since that's whats currently on it, then begin the arduous process of cleaning the cabin. I'm sure many more questions will develop, I'll be sure to post in the proper section of the forum
Thanks for the responses!
Jim